HOW THE BIBLE DECLARES THAT JESUS “ABOLISHED” IT
By: General James Green
AS WE HAVE POINTED OUT, the weekly sabbath commandment was special to the ancient nation of Israel, and was not given to continue past the time of the New Covenant. “The rites of circumcision and the Sabbath are equally basic to Judaism … between God and the children of Israel” [Rabbi Abraham P. Bloch, The Biblical and Historical Background of Jewish Customs and Ceremonies (New York: KTAV Pub. House, 1980) p. 108].
Don’t be fooled by all these sabbath-keepers in Protestantism who are pushing this law of sabbath-keeping upon the Body of Christ. Jewish sabbath-keeping was exclusively for the Jews under the Old Covenant (see Ex 31:16), not the Gentiles. Nowhere do we find God giving this special covenant to any Gentile nation. And now the Church (of all races and cultures) is under NO obligation at all for sabbath-keeping (cf. Ex 31:13, 17). “Moreover also I gave THEM (the house of Israel) my sabbaths, to be a sign between me AND THEM, that THEY might know that I am the LORD that sanctify THEM” (Ezek 20:12).
The Messianic Jews, Seventh-day Adventists and other religious groups are pushing on the Church this sabbath-keeping thing. The following “Question & Answer” will be of some confirmation from another source in this area to our readers. It was adapted from “The Berean Call”, Oct. 2005 Issue (Bend, OR, USA).
Question (representative of several): In your May Q&A, you objected to the use of the terms “Messianic Jew” and “Messianic movement” as not biblical. The Jerusalem council settled the issue that there would be a distinction between Gentiles and Jews in observances and practice …. Jesus Christ is the same for Jew and Gentile unto salvation, yet observances can be different …. I would differ with your explanation of Jesus and His followers not being observant Jews after the cross. The apostles did continue to observe Sabbath after the cross (Acts 13:14, 42, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4, 11; two Sabbaths at Antioch, one Sabbath at Philippi, three Sabbaths at Thessalonica, seven to eight Sabbaths at Corinth). The feasts of Scripture were to be everlasting for the Israelites and could be partaken of by the strangers among them. Most were everlasting observances, and … will continue in the future …. God does not change His mind (Leviticus 23:14, 21; Zechariah 14:16-19). As a Gentile in a “Messianic” congregation, I have the liberty to keep these Feasts.
I think the writer of the question you answered was expressing the frustration he or she has regarding churches [where] a Jewish believer … is made to give up their identification as a Jew upon joining a predominantly Gentile congregation … told that they should not celebrate Hanukkah or Passover [but] must defer to Christmas and Easter, which is not in Scripture at all. God wants Jew and Gentile to be together in harmony, not replacing anything Jewish with something non-Jewish. This has been done throughout history … pushing Jewish people far away from the gospel. Jesus was a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew and will return a Jew. The church in many cases portrays Him stripped of His identity as a Jew …. There is no argument that the sacrifices were completed in Him, once and for all, and all has been accomplished for us to receive His free gift of eternal life.
Answer: I am sorry if there are any Christians who want Jews to deny their heritage as the chosen people of God descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were delivered from Egypt and brought into the Promised Land. That is wrong. Yes, the stranger who became a Jew through keeping the law, including being circumcised, was to keep the feasts of the Lord. But for a Gentile to keep those feasts today would be a fraud. His ancestors were not delivered from Egypt by miracles and brought into the Promised Land to inherit it, nor has he joined the nation of Israel.
None of the verses you list declares that the Apostles kept the Sabbath but only that they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Obviously, that was because the Jews gathered together there on that day, and this was the best way to reach them with the gospel.
✞ There are many warnings against becoming entangled in Jewish observances: “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike….He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it” (Rom 14:5-6). That passage certainly closes the door for Jew and Gentile upon obligatory observation of the Sabbath or any other Holy Day. As for “Messianic Jew”, the very term makes a distinction between Jews and Gentiles that does not exist in Christ. Am I a “Messianic Gentile”? There is neither Jew nor Gentile; we are one in Christ.
NOW here’s a fact for you: JESUS LITERALLY CANCELED THE JEWISH SABBATH! Does this startle you? John 5:18 tells us so: “…the Jews sought the more to kill him (Jesus), because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father…” The phrase “had broken the sabbath” in Greek actually declares that Jesus “was loosing”, i.e., “was doing away with” or “abolishing” the sabbath commandment. Therefore the literal rendering of the text is as follows, and it makes the issue much more clear: “…the Jews sought the more to kill him (Jesus), because he not only WAS LOOSING/ABOLISHING/DOING AWAY WITH THE SABBATH…” Many Greek scholars clearly affirm this fact. We will cite only a few of them (—the following information, #’s 1-4, was adapted from Sunday Facts & Sabbath Fiction, by Dr. R.K. Tardo):
1.M.R. Vincent. He translates “‘had broken’ literally: was loosing: the imperfect tense. Not, broke the sabbath in any particular case, but was annulling the law and duty of sabbath observance.”1
2. “This is exactly what John meant. This word translated ‘was loosing’ has profound legal significance to its meaning in contexts dealing with laws or judicial decisions. It is the same word used in Matthew 16:19: ‘Whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.’ It was also used to show a legal divorce in the New Testament Church. ‘Art thou loosed from a wife’ (1 Cor. 7:27). It also was used to describe the destruction of this world system. ‘Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved … wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved’ (2 Pet. 3:11-12). It was even translated as ‘destroy’. ‘The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil’ (1 John 3:8). And as Vincent said, it meant in Greek to annul the laws and duty of sabbath observance.” 2
3. Noteworthy Greek scholar, W.E. Vine, translates it, “to loosen, especially by way of deliverance, sometimes has the meaning of breaking, destructively, e.g., of breaking commandments, not only infringing them, but loosing the force of them, rendering them not binding.” 3
4. D. Bullinger translates it as “to loose, loosen, unbind, unfasten,”4 and Arndt and Gingrich define it, “1. loose, untie; 2. set free, release, be set free from bond; 3. break up; 4. destroy, bring to an end, abolish, do away with. Of commandments, laws, statements (it means to), repeal, annul, abolish, abolish the sabbath.”5
ENDNOTES: 1 M.R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (MacDonald Publishing, n/d), Vol. 1, p. 434. 2 Is Sabbath Observance Required for Salvation? (Pasadena, California: E.L.M. Foundation for Biblical Research, 1975), p. 5. 3 W.E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (MacDonald Publishing, n/d), p. 149. 4 E.W. Bullinger, A Critical Lexicon and Concordance (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1974), p. 112. 5 W.F. Arndt and F.W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (The University of Chicago Press, 1952), pp. 484-485.
Therefore it is clear that Jesus was not being accused of merely breaking the sabbath but of literally abolishing the commandment itself!
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Jesus has completely loosed us from sabbath observance forever, and that is why the New Testament Church has never been under that binding Old Testament “sign” of sabbath-keeping.
“For Christ is the END of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom 10:4). Christ Jesus fulfilled ALL 613 Old Covenant commandments, ending their jurisdiction over us (read Gal 2:16). We are now under New Covenant Law in Christ Jesus.
Keeping the sabbath does not make one perfect (Heb 7:11), nor does it sanctify us. So why do it? Those who keep the Jewish sabbath are merely being “religious”, but this will not make one “righteous”.
Have we New Testament Christians soon forgotten that the rending of the Old Testament temple veil was accomplished, demonstrating an END to the Old Testament, and, thank God, the beginning of the New? (See Matt 27:51.) Christ finished His work by dying on the cross (Heb 7:27, 10:10; Rom 6:10). Jesus IS our Sabbath, our rest.
All the Old Covenant laws, covenants, etc, were never intended to be permanent as Galatians 3:19 proves. They were all intended to be FULFILLED and/or EXPANDED. Of course we still have moral laws—Jesus simply expanded and broadened those—but all the temporary shadows and types, like the covenant of the Law of Moses and God’s covenant of circumcision with Abraham’s descendants, were fulfilled when the seed (Christ) came.
All those Mosaic Laws were given to show man their sin! (Rom 7:7) And according to Romans 3:20 and 21, the “righteousness” of God is WITHOUT the Law (of Moses).
Moreover, Christ became our eternal High Priest, so there is NO NEED for a Levitical Priesthood within the New Testament Church (see Heb 7:11-12, 18). That means we don’t need distinctions between races and cultures and bloodlines, like “Jewish Christian” and “Gentile Christian” and so on. If we really love the Lord Jesus Christ, we are all simply “Christian”.
Even the continuing moral laws (like don’t commit sex sins, don’t lie, steal, murder, etc.) have no authority over individuals unless they allow them to. The New Testament commandments are God’s standards of conduct against the sinfulness of man, yet we have the choice to obey or not. It is right and safe to obey His commandments in Christ Jesus, but to keep the Jewish sabbath is superfluous.
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NOTE: We do not believe that the Old Testament is “trash” or “worthless” now, as some believe. For Scripture clearly states, “ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). This means we must continue instructing from all of God’s Word, yet we must interpret all things and apply all things in light of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus.